Jaeger: Dark Knight
by hawkstout
Summary: Very slight spoilers for Pacific Rim (in how piloting works): Dick's always been compatible with people. Damian hasn't.


He never thought he would be doing it again. Not after Bruce, but he did. He carried on and he went through multiple partners.

There was an ongoing joke that everyone was compatible with Dick Grayson… for a limited time only.

Bruce was as close to perfect as it ever got, and Dick wasn't the one that left in that instance.

Bruce had left him. Left piloting all together.

"It's in hand, it's time to get back to what's important."

Gotham, criminals, the grand balance of things.

Giant monsters were emerging from the Pacific Rim and Bruce was worried about fear toxin and Joker Gas.

Then again Dick had seen first had how terrifying that could be.

As big a personality as Bruce—Batman was, he was meant for his small slice of hell in Gotham. Maybe Dick would be the same if it wasn't for the Kaiju.

The Kaiju. They had become action figures and the butt of late night talk shows. No one saw the danger anymore, but he remembered his seventh partner, his brother Tim.

"What happens when the bigger fish come through?" His exact words and Dick had shivered and hoped it would never come to that.

He probably would have stayed with Tim if he hadn't seen Kon and Tim in action together.

He wished Tim hadn't been so damn prophetic.

The day Red Hood went down and Jason died was the day Dick left. He couldn't feel safe in the drift anymore. Not with memories of his little brother's voice screaming for Bruce to save him.

Maybe that was a wise choice in the long run. Jaeger pilots were dropping like flies. Class Threes, Class Fours. Dick bashed in the skulls of thugs and felt balanced again. He could understand why Bruce was drawn to it.

Bruce… he blamed himself for Jason. Jason had always wanted to please him and Jason thought the quickest way to do that was to emulate Dick and Bruce was foolish enough to encourage it.

Jason wasn't Dick.

But maybe Dick wasn't brave like Jason. Jason faced his problems head on. Dick always found himself running away. The amount of former partners spoke for itself.

But it wasn't 'just a few bad missions' anymore. Dick watched from the sidelines and he worried for his friends, his brother, his former partners.

It was Bruce that asked.

"I'm heading up a team." Bruce grunted. It felt like they were on top of Gotham. They were Nightwing and Batman and they still could move in sync, even outside the drift.

"Justice League stuff?"

"Jaeger stuff."

Dick tensed, he was waiting for someone to ask the question.

"You and me again?"

"No, there's someone else."

* * *

Someone else was Damian Wayne. He looked down at the boy and his own childhood popped into his head.

"Children have no place in a Jaeger." He turned to Bruce. The boy narrowed his eyes, looked Dick up and down then tilted his head towards his father.

"I would agree."

* * *

"It's not a war anymore, Dick."

He was sitting on the edge of a catwalk in Gotham Core looking at all the machines of war and remembered flying through the sky as Robin, swinging with his parents, moving in sync with Bruce.

"I know."

"Damian is… bright. Well suited, compatible."

"Except?"

"No one's at his level."

"He's your son."

Bruce didn't look surprised that Dick had sussed it out. Dick was his protégé. He would be disappointed if it were any other way.

"Yes."

"Where did he come from? One of your cover nights and a bad condom?"

"Talia."

Dick hissed and then laughed, "It would be her wouldn't it. Couldn't be Selina?"

"Did you really think he was Selina's?"

"Not a chance in hell."

"I want you to give him a chance."

"I have every confidence in him."

"…Dick."

"I do. Not because he's your son. Not because he's your choice. I can see the confidence in his eyes. I can see the potential."

"You've always connected well with people."

"Yeah, but he's ten Bruce. Ten. I should have never been a pilot a ten and I was a prodigy. Damian's a genius, the best the world has to offer isn't he? Otherwise you wouldn't put him in a Jaeger. Not your blood."

"I didn't want you in a Jaeger either."

"Don't lie," Dick shook his head, "You always wanted me as a partner. It wasn't until Two-Face, when he breached our hull, when he almost killed me that you stopped and realized you were putting a little kid at risk. By then I wasn't a little kid anymore though."

"Are you saying I love him more than you?"

Dick laughed.

"I don't. You're my son Dick, so is Damian, so is Tim and Ja—"

"Jason's the reason why he shouldn't fly. This sounds like your desperate Bruce, you have any idea how scary that is? When you're putting ten-year-olds back in monsters of war to fight monsters from another dimension?"

"It's not a war anymore Dick. It's the end of the world and I need the best. If he has any chance it has to be with you."

"What about you?"

"I'm barely compatible with him. I'm the only one he's synced with successfully and that was a disaster."

"What do you want us to do?"

"Protect Gotham."

Dick smiled. That was always the end goal wasn't it? As long as Batman had his foothold in Gotham everything would be okay.

He realized then that Bruce was certain they were going to lose and maybe he wanted them together. Maybe he wanted his family all in one place. Looking down he could just make out the red and black of Tim's uniform mix with Kon's. Babs, Steph, Cass, Diana, Zatana, Helena, even Dr. Langstrom. Everyone Bruce trusted in one way or another. God, Bruce really knew how to throw a family reunion.

"We might not be compatible."

"You're perfect for him."

"I'm perfect for everyone."

"…He's perfect for you."

Dick frowned.

"Piloting is a two way street, Dick. You let me take the lead and as much as you were my partner-"

"I was a junior partner."

"He's perfect for _you_." Bruce repeated.

And that was a novel enough idea for Dick to at least try.

* * *

When they moved together something clicked. Damian felt it too, the boy seemed surprised. Dick has seen the videos. He had no patience and usually ended up having his sparing partner on the ground. He didn't work in tandem. Dick had doubted that even he could synch with the kid, but… he had been wrong.

"I pegged you as a coward."

Banter. Dick could do Banter.

"Best way to avoid dying is being a coward. Knowing when to run keeps you alive." Dick jumped without thinking when the boy tried to sweep his legs.

"The best way is frontal assaults with Kaiju."

"The best way is whatever means necessary with Kaiju." Dick countered. "There's a time for caution and there's a time to be fearless."

They both froze. Their staves were directly in front of their opponents-_partner's_ forehead.

"Point," They said together.

* * *

Their first test run hadn't gone well.

The drift was like an old friend. Dick floated through with confidence. It was like swinging on a trapeze he hadn't done it in years, but there was still… muscle memory.

Damian's thoughts meshed with his own. He could feel him, hear him.

_So much light._ Damian's mind whispered even as Dick's shuddered _so much darkness _.

They were synched. Dick opened his eyes and glanced over in time with Damian. He saw his own smile on the boy's face.

"-Tt-" they both sounded and Dick broke into joyful laughter. Their minds meshed and it felt good and right. There was no compensation with Damian. He didn't have to hold himself back or push himself forward. They were both… equal.

Damian's memories swirled around his own. He let them slide past. Damian every once in a while caught a memory.

"Don't focus," Dick chided. "Let it flow. Don't get caught in the drift."

"I _know_"

_"I __**know**__ I don't need __**your**__ help. You're just a washout. I can handle myself fine."_

Jason—

No, no, no, don't let it catch hold!

He felt himself riding free again but—

Darkness.

The darkness was spreading. Wait—

"Damian!"

Memory was immersive. Crisp and clear like the day it was recorded in the brain. Damian in a dark cave. He couldn't be more than seven. He's blind folded. Dick knows he's afraid. He can feel the fear.

"You're dreaming," Dick said to the boy. The boy was breathing harshly. He was gripping a sword, prepared for anything.

"Damian, you're caught in the drift, you need to wake up."

The cave started shaking, stalactites started falling. The boy struck out, perhaps thinking it was an enemy.

"Damian!"

**Dark Knight** jerked to life responding to the boy's movements.

"Damian!" Dick yelled.

The cave rumbled, was shattering around them and suddenly there was light, The roof, the _mountain_ had been torn above him. He was still blindfolded, but he still saw it.

The light.

It was the first time he had seen natural light. He didn't take off the blindfold. He held his sword in front of him ready to strike.

"DAMIAN!"

Dick was beside him. The boy was facing a gigantic monster with a little sword and nothing else.

The sword function had been activated. He'd destroy the control room.

He couldn't pull him out from outside the drift…

So Dick fell. He fell in.

He felt his hands catch a trapeze that became the edge of a gargoyle. Bats screamed in his ear and the smell of a plain wax candle wafted through the room and the taste of Alfred's cookies on his tongue, then he was beside Damian facing a Kaiju. The only thing in his hand was a sword, identical to Damian's. It was real. All thoughts of the control room and his goal was gone, but Damian was with him and the little boy was scared. They were going to die.

Dick threw the sword aside. What was the point of struggling in fear. He crouched in front of Damian and pulled off the blindfold meeting his eyes, then hugged him.

The sound of metal hitting flesh and he felt the flow again and he remembered and Damian remembered and they pulled out of the memory together and they were at sea again, like they were supposed to be.

They were still in synch.

"My bad," They both apologised.

* * *

They didn't have to talk. When you're in someone's head everything you might say the other already knows. They knew as one Damian's mother issues, Dick's problems with staying in one place, both their daddy issues, the way Dick felt seeing Bab's hair in the sunlight, the way Damian felt whenever he saw Drake's pretentious face. Even while Damian was sharp to him outside the Jaeger he knew the boy was fond of him and Damian, he knew, felt his own fondness shine through.

They were partners, they fought monsters.

There was nothing more to say.

* * *

Notes: Sorry, just a one-shot. Saw the movie the other day and got inspired. Probably off for the movie aspects and interpreted some stuff, but ahhh. I couldn't help but thinking of Dick and Bruce piloting together and then of course Dick and Damian.


End file.
